Film Reviews
The Eye of the Storm
Saturday, September 17th, 2011 Film Reviews,There is a powerful nostalgia for the 1970s in Fred Schepisi’s film adaptation of The Eye of the Storm. The novel appeared in 1973, the same year that Patrick White was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. I read it when I was a teenager, but still remember the impressively awful Elizabeth Hunter – an […]
The Unjust
Saturday, September 10th, 2011 Film Reviews,This is the second year of the Korean Film Festival in Australia, and like anything the South Koreans undertake it is a dynamic enterprise. This year’s KOFFIA is twice as big as the inaugural year, and it will probably continue to grow. The Festival has just concluded in Sydney, and opens tonight in Melbourne. It […]
Beginners
Saturday, September 3rd, 2011 Film Reviews,It’s widely assumed that visual artists who become directors will necessarily make arty, unwatchable films. Miranda July showed this need not be so with her sparkling feature of 2005, You, Me and Everyone We Know. Now her husband, Mike Mills, has added another volume to the defence of the artist, with Beginners, a film about […]
Pina
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 Film Reviews,Wuppertal in Germany’s North-Rhine area is chiefly known for two things: the Pina Bausch Tanztheater, and its suspended monorail, the Schwebebahn. In Pina, his ground-breaking foray into the field of 3D documentary, Wim Wenders gives us a generous helping of both these attractions. It is a premise of Pina that dance, or bodily movement, is […]
Jane Eyre
Saturday, August 27th, 2011 Film Reviews,Jane Eyre is the definition of a classic: a tale that is discovered afresh by every new generation. As the story of an orphan girl who overcomes incredible hardships chiefly through her own strength of character, it invites a universal identification. To a certain extent we are each of us alone in the world, each […]
The Illusionist
Friday, August 26th, 2011 Film Reviews,Jacques Tati, the legendary French comic, has always been a paradox. Many people find the antics of his famous creation, Monsieur Hulot, to be side-splittingly funny, but there are others, such as Yours Truly, who have never warmed to Tati’s brand of humour. The typical Tati gag will have M. Hulot opening and closing a […]
Bad Teacher
Tuesday, August 16th, 2011 Film Reviews,When Cameron Diaz is not acting, like, she talks just like a typical teenage girl, like. Amazing! Considering she’s like almost 40 and a multi-million dollar earner on the Hollywood circuit. Awesome, dude! I’ve always wondered whether Sofia Coppola’s notorious parody of Diaz as a blonde, airheaded actrine in Lost in Translation, was an unfair […]
The Conspirator
Saturday, July 30th, 2011 Film Reviews,To get the most from The Conspirator it helps to be selectively ignorant of American history. It is useful to have some broad understanding of the brutality and bitterness of the American Civil War, but even better if one has never heard of the conspiracy trial that followed the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. In making […]
Larry Crowne
Saturday, July 23rd, 2011 Film Reviews,In Forrest Gump, Tom Hanks portrayed an inspirational simpleton who captured the imagination of the world. In Larry Crowne, he has given us another inspirational figure: the little man, the average Joe, who stands up against a brutal, debased system, and finds his bliss. The difference this time around is that Larry Crowne has been […]
Special Treatment
Thursday, July 21st, 2011 Film Reviews, Other Writing,This may not be the first time that anyone has recognised a peculiar affinity between psychoanalysis and prostitution, but Jeanne Labrune’s Special Treatment, explores that echo with impressive subtlety. This is a quiet, evenly-paced film that looks initially as if it might be a comedy, but soon settles into a dramatic pattern that takes us […]